Activism

In 2007, there was talk in the Muslim blogosphere of MSA National being dead. There were several articles, an independent survey and private meetings to discuss it. Five years later nothing has changed. Just the names of the people managing it. I attended the ISNA 2012 conference in Washington, D.C. and sat in the MSA main session in the main hall Sunday night. I heard Dr. Altaf Husain speak and call upon people to donate to MSA National. Appealing to the parents of children that attended campuses across America to donate because the MSA helped their children find their Muslim identity. This is true. MSA helped me and literally thousands of Muslims. The MSA has inspired Muslims to go overseas and study and come back and build institutes and educate the masses. The MSA has guided many from clubbing and drugging to praying and learning. The MSA has helped people find half their deen in a spouse that they love and appreciate (jokes aside this is a good thing). The MSA is wonderful and awesome for those who participated in it. Many who graduate and move on always reminisce on the MSA days. Many say they don’t miss school, they just miss the hanging out with their friends at the MSA.

Abdul Sattar Edhi highlights many wrongs of Pakistan and then tries his best to fix it. This is a Muslim. Serving humanity. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came as a mercy for humanity. Abdul Sattar Edhi is following the most noble and honorable footsteps. What’s really interesting is that he refuses to accept aid and help from others. He would only accept from Pakistanis. I understand this as a challenge to Pakistanis to step up and follow in the most noble and honorable footsteps in serving humanity. May Allah increase him and help Pakistan! Ameen!

My wife saw just a few minutes of this video and she was so overwhelmed that she now vows to never eat meat unless it is “organic” (free range and zabihah). In fact she left the room only seeing the pork segment because she was so distraught from seeing how animals were being treated and prepared for human food consumption. She missed the segments on egg, poultry, milk, and dairy, which are foods we can actually consume as Muslims. This brings up another point. We should not hate pigs. As Muslims, although we are prohibited from consuming pig and pig products (due to the divine wisdom of Allah as He knows what is in man’s best interest), they are the creation of Allah and should be respected and honored as such. Seeing them tortured and brutally killed should make us cringe and cry.

WARNING: This video is extremely violent. It brought my wife and I to tears. I forced myself to watch the entire video to make myself more aware of the reality that is occurring in today’s food production facilities. After watching the video, I became more serious with respect to my intention about eating organic and zabihah meat only, and to do so sparingly.

Now that you are all teary-eyed (if you’re not, that’s ok), I have some good news for you! Mercy Slaughter in Texas provides zabihah slaughtered free-range (“organic”) meat. Here is a video of their beautiful methods:

After watching both videos, what are your thoughts on the following?

– How food is being produced in the West and worldwide
– How animals are treated during mechanisms of food production
– What are your thoughts on supporting local farmers versus large corporations (such as in the case of concentrated animal food operations (CAFOs))?
– How do you feel after seeing the animals submitting unwillingly for slaughter in the Mercy Slaughter video?